Airbnb has tapped Ahmad Al-Dahle, former head of generative artificial intelligence at Meta Platforms , as its news technology chief, CEO Brian Chesky announced on Wednesday.
"With Ahmad, we are really, really excited because we have an opportunity to do AI right for travel, to do AI right for ecommerce," Chesky told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin.
Al-Dahle previously ran Meta's older GenAI unit and was later appointed co-head of AI products when the social media company divided the unit after developers poorly received its Llama 4 model. Meta later hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang as part of a $14.3 billion deal to bolster its AI strategy.
Former tech chief Ari Balogh stepped down in December after more than seven years at the company. He joined Airbnb in 2018 from Google .
Airbnb is in the midst of a major transformation as it attempts to push beyond its reputation as a short-term rental platform.